This paper examines the eects of India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Em- ployment Guarantee Act, currently world's largest public employment program, on household consumption and poverty rates in rural India. Combining regionally coded data from surveys with information district-wise rollout we employ a regression discontinuity design to estimate program during years 2007 2008. We …nd large, season-speci…c among tradi- tionally deprived sub-group population, whose incomes are particularly...

We model rotating savings and credit associations (Roscas) among risk‐averse participants who experience privately observed income shocks. A random Rosca is not advantageous, whereas a bidding if temporal risk aversion less pronounced than static aversion. The payoff scheme of facilitates sharing in the presence information asymmetries. risk‐sharing performance simple arrangement where group homogenous individuals runs several Roscas simultaneously as good that linear contract, more...

Abstract The maternity benefit scheme piloted as Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) since 2011 and recently rolled out Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana (PMMVY) incentivizes mothers to participate in infant health‐promoting activities. It has become India's largest conditional cash transfer program ever, outrivaling the country's first‐generation Janani Suraksha (JSY), which institutional delivery been criticized for its unintended side effects on fertility. We approach IGMSY's...

Journal Article Private Information and Altruism in Bidding Roscas Get access Stefan Klonner Cornell University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 118, Issue 528, 1 April 2008, Pages 775–800, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02142.x Published: 19 March 2008 history Received: 05 August 2003 Accepted: 15 January 2007

This paper empirically analyzes sources of extreme economic distress in rural India. We use district-level data on farmers' suicides two major states during the years 1998 to 2004 estimate effects transitory economic shocks and structural change agriculture incidence farm households. To elicit causal effect suicides, we rainfall conditions as an instrumental variable. For state Karnataka, where poverty were especially variable around turn millennium, find that spikes caused by a lack...

We examine changes in financial allocations Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (Roscas), a popular group-based institution world-wide, the aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. With data from locations along South coast we estimate causal effect this major natural disaster on flows between occupational groups, price credit other loan characteristics. find that supply funds these networks remained remarkably stable, while demand by small medium-scale entrepreneurs increased...

The maternity benefit scheme introduced as Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) in 2011 and renamed Pradhan Mantri Matriva (PMMVY) 2017, which incentivizes pregnant lactating women to participate various infant health-promoting activities, is India’s largest conditional cash transfer program thus far. We approach IGMSY’s geographically targeted pilot phase a natural experiment use data from large national health survey estimate its effects by matched-pair differences-in-differences...

It is generally recognized that the adoption of a new technology plays fundamental role in development process. However, benefits from introduction may be unevenly distributed among population, especially if markets do not function properly. While microeconomic literature on adopted and diffusion focuses "who" "when," macroeconomic has focused overall impact globalization inequality. In this paper authors bring these two strands together by studying plastic reinforced fiber boats fishing...

We investigate the properties of health insurance demand in Burkina Faso, where we offered poor households a voluntary product at half usual price. The targeting procedure implemented delivers fuzzy regression discontinuity design, which identifies price elasticity for as well associated selection effects. find large elasticities among urban households, whereas rural is inelastic. There are important effects, with widowed male household heads being most sensitive. Correlating these...

Building on anthropological evidence, we develop a model of intra-household decision making fertility and child survival within the framework collective household model. We carry out test implications this with data from Demographic Health Surveys in rural Mali, where polygyny rates among married women are close to 50 percent. The econometric tests reject efficient allocations for junior wives bigynous households fail senior as well monogamous households. These findings consistent existent...

Abstract Targeting of governmental welfare programmes in low-income countries commonly relies on statistical procedures involving household-level data, while smaller-scale often employ community-based targeting, where village communities themselves identify beneficiaries. Combining original data from targeting exercises Burkina Faso with a household survey we compare the accuracy four common methods when objective is to target consumption-poor households. We find that substantially less...

Targeting of national anti-poverty programs in low-income countries commonly relies on statistical procedures involving household-level survey data, while small-scale poverty-alleviation often employ so-called community-based targeting, where village communities themselves identify program beneficiaries.